tags: researchblogging.org, Aves, Psittaciformes, Pseudasturidae, parrots, Palaeogene, Eocene, Denmark An artist’s impression of the parrot-like bird, Mopsitta tanta, dating back 55 million years. The fossils indicate that parrots once flew wild over what is now Norway and Denmark. Image: David Waterhouse [larger view]. A team of researchers, including a former postdoctoral colleague of mine, recently…

tags: What Bugged the Dinosaurs?, dinosaurs, insects, disease, George Poinar, Roberta Poinar, book review I grew up with a fondness for dinosaurs. Their unbelievable size, their peculiar shapes, and their undeniable absence from the world as I knew it were all sources of fascination. But never once did I think of the dinosaurs as being…

tags: Evolution: What The Fossils Say And Why it Matters, fossils, dinosaurs, creationism, Donald Prothero, book review I was in love with dinosaurs when I was a kid, and I still am. It was my love for dinosaurs and fossils and especially my time spent learning the minutea of the evolutionary history of horses that…

tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, bird-dinosaur split, dinosaurs, birds, rocks-versus-clocks, fossil record, molecular clocks The first feathered dinosaur fossil found in China — Sinosauropteryx. The feathers can be seen in the dark line running along the specimen’s back. Image: Mick Ellison, AMNH [larger view] There is a lot of controversy among scientists regarding when modern birds first…

A fossilized brown hyena, Hyaena brunnea, which lived in Europe 1.8 million years ago. [Larger view]. An amazing fossil find in the Andalusian savannah in southeast Spain has revealed that a large variety of animal species lived together in that region during the boundary between the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, 1.8 million years ago. This…

1842 THE BIRTHDAY OF BEER! Lager Beer is perfected in the city of Pilsen, you know, as in Pilsner Beer. Beer was made by the Egyptians and Sumerians and traced back to the Ice Age, but our concept of beer requiring an advancement in refrigeration is Pilsner or Lager. 1905 The initial description of Tyrannosaurus…

tags: blog carnivals, The Boneyard, paleontology The sixth edition of the Boneyard is now available for you to read. This blog carnival focuses on paleontology and fossils, so there’s plenty there for you dinosaur fans to enjoy.